Skip to content

New “People’s 311” Site Maps Street Hazards

Carrie McLaren and Steve Lambert are working on a public service photo project called "People's 311." They want New Yorkers to submit shots of things like potholes, bike lane hazards, dying trees and broken traffic signs.

311_4.JPG Carrie McLaren and Steve Lambert are working on a public service photo project called “People’s 311.” They want New Yorkers to submit shots of things like potholes, bike lane hazards, dying trees and broken traffic signs.

People’s 311 is a “crowdsourcing” response to the Street Conditions Observation Unit (SCOUT) program, a new team of inspectors dispatched by the Mayor’s Office of Operations to drive every city street (in scooters) once per month and report problem conditions to 311. McLaren and Lambert think this is something citizens could help with. They eventually plan to map all photos for a more comprehensive picture of reported problems.

Check the Stay Free! Magazine Blog for details. And for more experiments in crowdsourcing, see Brian Lehrer’s SUV count from earlier this month, and, of course, Streetsblog’s favorite project, Uncivil Servants.

Photo of Jason Varone
Jason Varone battles the streets everyday during a 9 mile commute on his bicycle from downtown Brooklyn to the Upper East Side. In addition to his efforts on Streetsblog, he is an artist making work related to the environment and technology. Examples of his work can be found at www.varonearts.org.

Streetsblog has migrated to a new comment system. New commenters can register directly in the comments section of any article. Returning commenters: your previous comments and display name have been preserved, but you'll need to reclaim your account by clicking "Forgot your password?" on the sign-in form, entering your email, and following the verification link to set a new password — this is required because passwords could not be carried over during the migration. For questions, contact tips@streetsblog.org.

More from Streetsblog New York City

Hit-and-Run School Bus Driver Kills 9-Year-Old Boy in South Williamsburg

May 1, 2026

MTA Prepares to Fund IBX Light Rail Without Feds After Trump Meddling

May 1, 2026

Opinion: Mamdani’s New Era For Bus Riders Starts With A Bold ‘Streets Plan’

May 1, 2026

Friday Video: How Robert Moses Cut Through Brooklyn And Queens

May 1, 2026

Friday’s Headlines: Super Speeders in the Times Edition

May 1, 2026
See all posts